Quick and spoilery thoughts on tonight’s “Game of Thrones” episode, “Mockingbird.”
This was a logistical bridge episode, positioning for the future but with an unusual glimpse of various characters’ vulnerabilities: The Hound’s lasting hurt as he explains his burn scars to Arya, Tyrion’s eternal hurt from being discounted as a “freak,” a display of Cercei’s champion Sir Gregor’s killer instinct (The Mountain is “freakish big and freakish strong”), Dany’s toying with men as well as Masters, oh, and Chekov would approve the follow-through of the Moon Door: Littlefinger’s dispatching of Lysa was less a surprise than his admission that he only ever loved one woman, her sister Catelyn Stark.

The question of the week was answered with a surprise. Oberyn will stand as Tyrion’s champion. He has scores to settle.
Cercei is set up as Tyrion’s greatest enemy (“making honest feelings do dishonest work is one of Cercei’s gifts,” Tyrion says.)
And Pod is proving valuable to Brienne, since Tyrion made sure he knew which House hated which. They’ve now got a clue in their search for Sansa, plus a baked good to relay to Arya.

They remain a favorite duo: Brienne and Pod in transit are doing their own Hope and Crosby road movie (or are they the GoT answer to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, dispatched on an errand but providing an absurd comic sidelight to the main action?).

Trial by combat presumably comes the week after next as HBO takes a Memorial Day weekend break from the series to present “The Normal Heart.”

AMC has given the nod to three reality TV series, one of them, as previously reported, “All-Star Celebrity Bowling,” a tongue-in-cheek affair from Colorado’s High Noon Productions.

Per AMC:

“All-Star Celebrity Bowling” (eight episodes, 30 minutes) is the battle royale of celebrity game shows. Adapted from Chris Hardwick’s hit web series, “All-Star Celebrity Bowling” features two new celebrity casts each week facing off in a fun-filled bowling match for charity. Hosted by twin brothers Randy and Jason Sklar, this comedic talk/game show hybrid allows viewers a chance to see a different side of their favorite celebrities as they compete, drink and trash talk their way through ten exciting frames of bowling. The pilot features a hilarious match up between Jon Hamm and the cast of “Mad Men” versus Chris Hardwick and his Nerdist team. Charitable winnings are on the line in each episode as stars from the world of television, movies, sports, music and pop culture bowl for dollars.

Produced by High Noon Productions; Executive Producers: Chris Hardwick and Peter Levin of Nerdist; Executive Producers: Jim Berger and Patrick Jager from High Noon

AMC said comedians-siblings Randy and Jason Sklar will host. The series is adapted from Chris Hardwick’s web series, “All-Star Celebrity Bowling.” The pilot features a hilarious match up between Jon Hamm and the cast of “Mad Men” and Chris Hardwick and cohorts.

The network also picked up “Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project” from the former leader of the Smashing Pumpkins, and “Visionaries,” “Visionaries” a docuseries about Vision Scenery, as employees design and build Hollywood sets, props and models.Read more…

In the latest purge of progressive political voices on the radio, Clear Channel’s 760 AM (KKZN) in Denver will switch to financial talk in the morning, conservative/advice in the afternoon, effective May 19. Part of the re-formatting includes a two-hour Tom Martino “Troubleshooter” simulcast with Clear Channel’s KHOW.

The new format embraces syndicated fare such as Jim Bohannon and Joy Browne and the morning show from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Radio. Clear Channel has always argued that it has no politics, only an allegiance to ratings. In that sense, they are following the money to … money. (We’ve been through this before. Remember Air America?)

It remains to be seen how the syndicated “Money in the Morning” does against local talker Peter Boyles on KNUS 710 AM.

The only ratings available are the very broad measure of persons 12+ (whereas advertisers buy specific target demos), but here’s what we know about local talk:
KOA had a 3.8 average quarter hour share of the 2,486,500 local population for April 2013. KHOW drew a 1.5. KKZN barely registered with a 0.8. Hello? Hello?
By contrast, public broadcasting outlet KCFR scored a 4.1.

Eric Kahnert, a former 9News weekend anchor most recently a primary anchor at KSTP in Minneapolis, has been named to succeed the retiring Mike Landess as 7News anchor. Kahnert joins KMGH on June 30; Landess is set to retire in late August.

Kahnert, who worked at KUSA from 2009-12, will serve as field anchor as well as holding down the anchor desk with Anne Trujillo and, at times during the next two months, Landess.

In making the announcement, KMGH News Director Jeff Harris cited Kahnert’s record as a “hard news journalist” with investigative reporting instincts and a history of breaking big stories.

“7News is the kind of news organization I’ve always wanted to be part of. They don’t spend a lot of time on the fluff,” Kahnert said by phone.

Before joining ABC affiliate KSTP in Minneapolis, Kahnert was an anchor and investigative reporter at NBC affiliate KOB in Albuquerque. While at 9News in Denver, he won an Emmy for a two-part series, “Unemployment Fraudsters,” exposing problems within the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

CBS will keep its slate largely intact this fall, launching launch five new series, the fewest primetime changes of any broadcast network. New fall dramas include “Madam Secretary,” starring Tea Leoni as a new U.S. Secretary of State; the spinoff “NCIS: New Orleans”; “Scorpion,” about brilliant misfits working to protect the country from cyber threats, and “Stalker,” starring Maggie Q and Dylan McDermott as detectives, plus the comedy “The McCarthys,” starring Laurie Metcalf.

On Thursdays this fall, ABC wil move “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” each an hour earlier to make way for a third Shonda Rhimes drama, “How to Get Away with Murder.” That means “Scandal” will go up against NBC’s “The Blacklist,” currently the hottest show on network TV.

ABC’s schedule is designed to appeal to women with a strong play for minorities: “Black-ish,” the Latina comedy “Cristela” and, at midseason, an Asian-American comedy “Fresh Off the Boat.”

The drama “American Crime,” written, directed and produced by John Ridley (“12 Years A Slave”) and starring Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton, was singled out to close the ABC upfront presentation. The gritty series treats a crime from numerous angles and across racial lines.

Among the new comedies is an update on “My Fair Lady,” called “Selfie,”about a woman popular on social media, but lonely in real life, who hires a marketing expert to polish her image. It stars Karen Gillan and John Cho.

Hema Mullur, anchor-reporter at Fox31/Channel 2 at 7 and 10 p.m., will leave for KEYE-TV in Austin. The Texan is returning to her home state to work at the CBS affiliate. She will remain on the air here until June 6.

“It’s been a wonderful three years here,” Mullur said Tuesday. The anchor she will replace is retiring after 30 years in the market. “(Judy Maggio) is the Adele Arakawa of Austin, so I have very big shoes to fill. There were only a couple of cities I would have left Denver for and Austin was at the top of that list.”

With Mullur leaving and Deborah Takahara getting ready to go on maternity leave, sounds like recent hire Aristea Brady is going to be busy.

The network also thinks it has the next young-skewing soap in Steven Spielberg’s “Red Band Society,” to do for the network in 2014 what “Beverly Hills 90210” did in 1990 and “90210” did in 2008.

As the networks make upfront presentations to advertisers this week in New York, after the rush of cancellation/renewal notices last week, the schedules are released. Stay tuned for a wrap-up in Friday’s print edition of The Denver Post.

Long-time 9News morning anchor Kyle Dyer, for 18 years a fixture of the Denver morning TV scene, will leave the wake-up newscast to become a part-timer in July under a new multi-year contract.

Dyer will anchor the 11 a.m. and noon newscasts at KUSA and will provide taped pieces for the morning shows under a new deal she requested from management.

“We offered her (a contract) to stay on fulltime,” News Director Patti Dennis said. “She wanted to renew her contract but in a different role, citing family obligations. She’ll no longer have to come in at 3 a.m.”

Her daughters are now 11 and 9, Dyer said, with increasing homework and after-school activities. “It’s hard to be present. It’s something I’ve thought about the last couple of years.” Additionally, she’s been keeping “these weird hours” since December 1993, even before she landed at KUSA.

The adjustment “will be just as weird for viewers” as it will be for her, Dyer said. But she reminds those who have had morning coffee with her for nearly two decades, “I’ll be there on tape.”

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.